Sorry – it’s been a while since I’ve updated everyone on the podcast. We’re still going strong and are 10 episodes in. From Wednesday:

We’re back and true to our Northeast roots, we spend 15 minutes dissecting the collapse of the Lakers (and taking some glee in it). We also try not to get too distracted by the collapse of the Celtics occuring in real time. SPOILER ALERT: They lose in overtime.

Sticking with our NBA theme, Phil from Los Angeles emails us and asks about the future of the NBA playoffs.

Also, Jesse goes all 1930’s on us with his analysis of the Kentucky Derby, boxing, and Constitutional law as it applies to Twitter and Rashard Mendenhall. Welcome to the Atlantic 10, new GW head coach Mark Lonergan. You have your work cut out for you.

Like this:

Talk about a late start this week. Between Passover and the Celtics kicking ass, we haven’t had a chance to record and post this thing until now. Well, it was recorded on Wednesday, but you get the idea.

Here’s what you have in store for your listening pleasure – Lee and Jesse break down the NBA Playoffs, discuss the most American football matchup ever and Lee makes a prediction about Jesus . . . Shuttlesworth. Plus Jesse sends his condolences to Cameraman Kevin.

First of all, my apologies for being absent from the blog for so long. Sometimes that whole “career” thing gets in the way. I will do my best to post more often.

So now, while I totally respect the view of Billy in his post about the Knicks, I think I need to take a stance on the other side of the fence. There is cause for major concern with this team, and while making the playoffs is a big step up from where they were a year ago, given their roster, just making the playoffs should not be enough. Yes, these players need time to gel, time to learn where each other tend to go on the floor when they don’t have the ball. I agree with Billy here, and I don’t put this on the players for not knowing their new teammates tendencies just yet.

Where I place blame, and where I see the reason to worry about this team, is Mike D’Antoni. In my view, he is simply not cut out to be the coach of this set of players. A Mike D’Antoni team is a pick-n-roll, jump-shooting team that runs the floor and looks to score in 7 seconds or less. While this style has helped transform some players from “average” to “good” (see Raymond Felton), the current set of players are not run-and-gun guys.

To break it down a bit more, these are the top 5 issues I see with the D’Antoni scheme fitting in with the “new look Knicks”:

Chauncey Billups is a great point guard in the half court game and is a great shooter from the outside. He can also find holes, drive to the lane and draw fouls. The MD system doesn’t allow him to utilize his skill set in the best way possible, leading to poor shot selection.

Carmelo Anthony is one of the best NBA forwards on the post. He is impossible to defend when he can back you down to the hoop and either drive past you or hit the open bucket. It takes time to set that play up, to clear out other players, and to give Melo the space to create off the dribble. That can’t happen in 7 seconds.

The pick-n-roll was working well for the Knicks pre-trade, and most teams had a hard time stopping it. Now, with Billups running point, the openings aren’t there anymore and Stat doesn’t come clean of the pick. Too many balls are being forced and turnovers are killing them, especially late in games.

DE-FENSE! D’Antoni has never, and will never, be accused of being a defensive coach. His philosophy is simple: we don’t care how many points you score – we just will outscore you. This attitude has trickled down on to the players as well, as the effort on the defensive side of the ball is rarely there. While Stat and Melo have never been considered good defenders, you can teach defense. Defense is all about effort and it starts from the top. Winning teams play great defense and make the most of offensive opportunities.

The culmination of all of these points makes the Knicks live and die by the jumper, more specifically, the 3-ball. If the Knicks are shooting well, they have a chance to win every night. If they aren’t knocking down shots, they don’t just lose, they get blown out. How many times have we seen teams shoot 40% from the field against the Knicks and still be in the game because they are playing defense and holding the Knicks to 35% shooting?

When all is said and done, this team has the talent to succeed, but in order to do so, in my opinion, they need to grasp the concept of defense. The Celtics, Heat, Bulls, can all win games that are 82-80, but the Knicks can not. Only after these players not only learn to play D, but also want to play D, will they become true winners. I just don’t see this happening with MD running practice.